You're a harsh man sussex. I've seen Smith attempt to act in his various endorsement deals/ads over here. Trust me, he's not even that good an actor. His bat would be more animated in comparison.

The other thing that makes it seem genuine to me rather than staged is Lehmann standing down after Smith's conference. After CA concluded that he didn't know what was going on and let him keep his job, to see him resign over Smith's conference means that he clearly thought the bloke was genuine. Yes, it could all have been elaborately staged, but to be quite honest, I don't believe that a bunch of chumps who were so daft to get caught cheating in such a ham-fisted way would have the wherewithal to stage something quite so elaborate. Occam's razor and all.

I think Smith was sincere in his apology, and that he and Bancroft will work hard to regain their standing.

As to whether others knew about it, or if it has happened before, the whole team and management appear to have concluded that the answer is no. Either the players have got together and come up with the same story, and are letting the three take the fall for the team, or it's true. Given Cricket Australia have concluded that it's true, we can have our suspicions (and it sure does seem unlikely that the incident was this isolated), but we'll never know for sure.

As to whether others knew about it, or if it has happened before, the whole team and management appear to have concluded that the answer is no. Either the players have got together and come up with the same story, and are letting the three take the fall for the team, or it's true. Given Cricket Australia have concluded that it's true, we can have our suspicions (and it sure does seem unlikely that the incident was this isolated), but we'll never know for sure.

What would such an investigation involve?

1. Ask those involved already having their images burnt in squares around Australia and already banned for a year, if they continually and consistently did it?

2. Ask the team mates, witnessing already the destruction of Smith and Warner, to basically admit being part of it by saying it happened before?

It might be a tiny presumptuous, but I am fairly confident that 0.00% of people are going to throw themselves into the fire at this point.